Doñana, the living cycle

Nestled near the Strait of Gibraltar, halfway between Europe and Africa, Doñana National Park can be seen as small, but complex universe. It is part of a natural circular environmental system which sustains this fragile, necessary and beautiful place.

This World Heritage Site, while having a clearly Mediterranean characteristics, is born from the sand bearing waters of the Atlantic Ocean which wash into the estuary of the Guadalquivir and form the largest dune system in Europe. This creates a great sea of fine, invasive sand which is absorbed by forests of pine along the coast and forms a vast marshland, constantly refreshed by rainwater and the tidal waters of the Guadalquivir. These wetlands then feed the waters of the longest and mightiest river of Andalusia with its sands... and the cycle is completed when these same sediments will be washed back to arrive at the same beaches where they began their circular journey thousands of years ago. A perfect circular eco system.

But perhaps the most characteristic sign of this Biosphere Reserve, the largest nature reserve in Europe, is that its skies are flown by three hundred seventy different species of African and European birds. It can be argued that many of these beautiful creatures would not exist if it wasn’t for the quality of this unique ecosystem. Inside the limits of this splendid geographical location one can also find nine hundred species of flora, twenty species of reptiles, twenty freshwater fish species, eleven of amphibians, countless types of insects, and thirty-seven different species of mammals. Among them endangered species such as the Spanish Imperial Eagle and the world's most endangered feline, the Iberian Lynx.